Gamaliel Boothroyd.

[Tony Lund]

This man died after an operation which seems to have taken place around a year after his discharge.

Gamaliel Boothroyd was a Private (23419), 20th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry. He died on the morning of Sunday 20th October 1918 at the Holmfirth Auxiliary Hospital. He was twenty-nine years old. He lived at Pog Ing, Holmfirth, as a boy he had attended Wooldale Council School and Town End Primitive Methodist Sunday School and later worked with his father in the Yeast Business. He enlisted in June 1916 with the Durham Light Infantry and went to France in October 1916.

In June 1917 he was severely wounded in the left thigh and his left hand. The hand became almost useless and he was medically discharged as disabled. Back in Holmfirth the doctors wanted to operate but felt it necessary to wait until his health improved and he grew stronger, eventually it was decided to go ahead with the operation, however, he became much worse as a result of the operation and subsequently died. He will have been buried at Holmfirth but he is not on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Register.

His death is registered in the ordinary home deaths, December Quarter 1918, as Gamaliel Boothroyd, aged 29 years, Huddersfield, 9a 573. His birth was registered in Q3/1889 and is also shown as Gamaliel Boothroyd.

His Christian name is spelt in a variety of ways:

He is Gamiliel Boothroyd, an 11 year old schoolboy at Wooldale, Holmfirth, on the 1901 census.

He is Gamaliel Boothroyd on the Holmfirth Parish Church Memorial.

He is Camaliel Boothroyd on the main Holmfirth Memorial: Wooldale section.

The Medal Rolls have a Private Gambel Boothroyd, 23419, 20th battalion, Durham Light Infantry.

So he is Gamiliel, Gamaliel, Camaliel, and Gambel.

Because his birth and death are registered as Gamaliel, I am using that as the correct spelling. His father had the same Christian name and was known as locally as Gam Boothroyd.

It looks like he was badly injured by the wounds and he never recovered from them, dying as a result of an operation which seems to be a direct result of those wounds.

So, is this something that is worth looking into? The death certificate will be available at the register office in Huddersfield and the medical discharge may perhaps mean some surviving record???

Tony.

[Terry Denham]

Tony

This is certainly a possibility.

If he died during an operation to rectify a wound, it is likely that he would be accepted.

You should gather what evidence you can - starting with the DC. Whether it can be taken further may be signified by what that says. Hopefully it will mention the purpose of the operation.

[Tony Lund]

On the Death Certificate:

Tuberculosis of the Lungs and Spine

6 months

No P.M.

Certified by Robert H. Trotter M.D.

The newspaper report did not say anything about tuberculosis, still, the certificate does seem to have cleared things up; but there is no mention of the operation or exactly what it was for.

At least I now have a cause of death, but I still do not know where he was buried. He died at the Holmfirth Military Auxiliary Hospital, and I have had a request for information about another man who died there so I will see if there are any records still in existence for this hospital, but so far as Private Boothroyd is concerned I think the death certificate is clear enough.

Tony.

[Terry Denham]

That does certainly suggest a non-service related death.